bacigalupe’s blog at umass

new TWTR.Widget({
version: 2,
type: ‘list’,
rpp: 30,
interval: 6000,
title: ‘Research, Policy, Prevention, News’,
subject: ‘Public Health’,
width: 250,
height: 300,
theme: {
shell: {
background: ‘#ff96e7′,
color: ‘#ffffff’
},
tweets: {
background: ‘#ffffff’,
color: ‘#444444′,
links: ‘#b740c2′
}
},
features: {
scrollbar: true,
loop: false,
live: true,
hashtags: true,
timestamp: true,
avatars: true,
behavior: ‘all’
}
}).render().setList(’bacigalupe’, ‘publichealth’).start();

Social Media and Collaborative Health

[prezi]http://prezi.com/k0stqj4_ps-j/view/[/prezi]

RT @DaphneLeigh Having our say with the FDA, new post up by @meredithgould #hcsm #hcmktg #fdaSM
35 minutes ago from web

CIO Council http://j.mp/eMkxA do away w/the term #socialmedia-use collaborative technology (via @JohnFMoore @cdorobek)
about 6 hours ago from Twitterrific

Fostering dialogue across divides: PCP Nuts & Bolts Guide PCP Nuts & Bolts Guide
about 23 hours ago from web

RT @ChristineKraft Data access problems: #5 complaint in the entire HHS Department. via @epatientdave http://bit.ly/25CDPq
about 23 hours ago from web

RT @RealTherapy In 3 weeks I’ll be without health insurance. Anyone want to provide me with benefits if there isn’t a gov’t option? #hcr
6:15 PM Sep 19th from web

British doctor faces action over claims of ‘ghost writing’ for US drug company http://bit.ly/npEP8
4:06 PM Sep 19th from web

In Chile today, the military are celebrated with a parade, sorry but I still think this is archaic, to celebrate a bunch of people with guns
3:58 PM Sep 19th from web

Exchanging some information with my colleagues at the Council on Contemporary Families http://www.contemporaryfami… good information!
12:39 PM Sep 19th from web

If I HAD a social media strategy, simply this: my old slides from Hugh’s ‘07 Building a Global Microbrand http://bit.ly/YvrvG RT@KathySierra
10:41 AM Sep 19th from Twitterrific

Okay — time to do some work. (via @Brendacopeland)
10:33 AM Sep 19th from Twitterrific

For many, health policy jargon is clear as mud (LA Times) http://bit.ly/39AUA
8:35 AM Sep 19th from Twitterrific

Facebook should soon start branding itself as failbook…
12:47 AM Sep 19th from Twitterrific
The cultural significance of free software http://twobits.net/discuss/ [title should say open source]
1:56 PM Sep 18th from web
RT @jensmccabe Do you have a policy spelled out for what to do if a patient tries to connect with you on social network?
12:00 PM Sep 18th from web

Medical Editors Push for Crackdown on Ghostwriting - http://bit.ly/3i92V
10:00 AM Sep 18th from TimesPeople
Spain & Norway investments + Angelini’s CELCO violate treaties protecting Chilean indigenous communities (pp.18-19) http://bit.ly/3ibd8N
8:21 PM Sep 17th from web
UN Rapporteur James Anaya: The Chilean Indigenous Communities Human Rights Situation http://bit.ly/3ibd8N
8:16 PM Sep 17th from web
@HealthyBoston @tasseophile just attended talk #Boston Public Health Commissioner on #health equity and #racism http://bit.ly/jgwbY
12:58 PM Sep 17th from web
Ethics, Research Ethics & Web 2.0 http://bit.ly/PzSL6
12:29 AM Sep 17th from Twitterrific
Study Shows Patients with Less Severe Form of Celiac Disease May Be at Higher Risk of Death http://bit.ly/1CGkK #celiac #gf
8:50 PM Sep 16th from web

Fear of Technology, Fears of Few: The Opportunities of Emergent Technologies for Families and Family Therapists DRAFT 1
Gonzalo Bacigalupe, Ed.D., MPH

Psychotherapists, many of them, very good friends and colleagues, are noticing that their patients are using wireless networked digital devices during sessions and family activities. The prevalent hypothesis heard in workshops, emergent articles, psychotherapists’ list-serve discussions, and the clever keynote at professional conferences suggests that something needs to be done. Families need to connect, the story goes, but these digital technologies are threatening how members connect. Family therapists then discuss potential solutions: no I-Phones during the session or have everyone disconnect their devices at dinnertime. Like our predecessors who thought that television would make our brains and lives succumb, we are now witnessing a plethora of experts letting professionals and families know that they need to slow down, disconnect their devices, and establish rules for engaging in controlled ways with these technologies. Otherwise, therapists suggests, we risk disconnecting; we are in danger of loosing the face-to-face connection. Brains are being rewired some exclaim and the psychopathology related discussion go on forever. A few cases of managerial dads (often dads, hum), who are unable to let their blackberries rest, emerge as examples of how bad things are. Everyone nods in agreement, others suggests that there are some good things in these new technologies but beware the advice goes. In no time, research probing the deleterious nature of these instant communication digital technologies can be expected. Probably, a few doctoral dissertations and NIH grant proposals are in the making.

These set of ideas starts from the assumption that families intentionally and/or naturally connect when there are no distractions. It takes for granted the idea that these emergent technologies are an intrusive other. Digital immigrants, most professionals who dominate the subject in discussion, speak about the technologies while they are still struggling with keeping their inbox at bay while a bit anxious about the speed at which new technologies emerge.

The concerned psychotherapist assumes some nostalgic upper middle class ideal of the family ritual in which adults and children communicate directly at specific times in isolation from the world. It assumes that families are complete around the table when dining a nurturing meal. These assumptions are often part of the reality or normalcy that professionals profess or construe as natural. In their minds, therefore, emergent technologies that digital natives adopt at fast rates are a threat; an inconvenient guest that suggests disconnection. Similarly, families in a psychotherapeutic session to fully “experience” the power of the therapeutic work should be uninterrupted by these devices. Otherwise, the connection between family members and the family with the enlightened professional is deeply threatened. A bit of narcissistic therapeutic ego here suggests that families are only preoccupied with their therapists questions when the digital devices don’t interrupt the “smooth flow” of conversation.

What is wrong with this picture?

Despite, family therapists attention to context, it seems that a catastrophic assessment of the impact of emergent technologies on families and the resulting need to intervene to control, misses most of families harsh realities and the opportunity that digital connectivity offers to both therapists and families. Like our predecessors who were afraid electricity would kill intimacy as a result of the ability to read at night, the fear of wireless digital technologies, overemphasizes the negative aspects for a few privileged families while it hides how families could strengthen their connections and identity because of the same technologies. Are blackberries the new TVs our grandparents were afraid of?

With 4 out of 10 kids in the Boston Public School system being of Latino descent, with the majority of the kids in the city having a family in which English is not the primary language, let us think about these technologies anew. My family therapy teamwork with a Guatemalan family may serve as an example of how these emergent technologies are a source of connection rather than disconnection. Jose and her three children attend a first session to address the usual school referral concerns. Because both parent are working full time, with schedules that allow them to take care of their children, it will be impossible for them to attend sessions all together.

At the first session we connect with mother via her cell phone connected to an earpiece. While she continues to work, she is able to participate from most of the session. She obviously does not have a cell phone to have therapeutic sessions but to connect with her husband throughout the day. The second session, after we find out that two of the kids were raised most of their early preschool years by their grandmother and aunt still in Guatemala, we use our computer to connect with them via Skype, not only they can hear their relatives but also see them. As the session progress, a cousin drops by and exchanges some words with one of the kids in the session.

At the third session, the teenage daughter shares with me some intergenerational information with the use of my own genogram software but moreover; she also shows me the photos of her relatives through her Facebook account. I discover through this conversation that a stepbrother is still in their country of origin and that the two older children miss them terribly. We invite him to session fourth. During the fifth session, we introduce the use of a flip video camera and the ability for them to take home a DVD disk with the session recording, the session in which we design a new ritual and ways of addressing some of the problematic issues. Watching the session later, they decide that they will create a brief conversation that addresses the school interdisciplinary team. By the 7th session, the family and the therapist have not only used technology but have made it part of their work, not an intrusion but an intrinsic part of the conversation. As an aside, we heard during one of the sessions that the ability to text makes everyone feel safe in a neighborhood in which violence is a continuous presence. When this family has the devices available at dinner, they are often part of having discussions about school related subjects but also about incorporating bicultural themes into their lives and so on.

My Guatemalans, Indonesian, and Rwandan immigrant extended families are geographically distant and in the past would have communicated to deliver some good and bad news on an abrupt and “disconnected” way, today, they are able to maintain relationships despite the national boundaries and geographical distance. Relationships have the emotional and experiential weight of face-to-face interactions. The photo that shows the kid receiving a diploma is shared immediately with a large network of family members and communities. When in therapy, I can connect with the grandmother about how to organize the newborn baptism; it is not the planning but the connection that gets strengthen. These sort of connections are also true for the White family whose father has to commute long hours to work and thus the devices allow him to connect with the kids while they are going to bed. What disconnecting process is that?

Sure, wealthy and upper-middle class who read the Style section of the New York Times may need to establish rules that restrict the use of these devices at their leisurely dinner on Thursdays. However, these same parents may be missing an opportunity to connect with what their children actually connect with through these emerging technologies.

Digital connections are something that allows millions these days to connect for the purpose of sharing and exchanging events, memories, wealth, products, and information. They are the source of connection. They are not a threat but a superb opportunity to maintain legacies, create new memories, and reestablish sanity in the context of geographic distance. Let’s stop dialoguing within the constraints of a nostalgic trap of believing that most families like we, the more privileged, live in.

We shouldn’t fear the emerging wireless digital technologies but to embrace them appreciatively and curiously. Adopt a digital native and ask those circular and curious questions and stop trying to generate rules of normalcy that do not apply to most families. Bring forth the best of our relational and contextual minds and expand your understanding of how these technologies are shaping and can be shaped to empower families.

Full Document Download .

What follows is the Exec Summary of a 30 pages long report, I just sent to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Council. The Report will be discussed at the Faculty Senate last meeting of the academic year on May 11. Let me know what you think and will soon add other pieces of the report.

Quality Online Education: A Work in Progress

Executive Summary

The UMASS Boston Faculty Council charged the Graduate Studies and the Academic Affairs Committees to select a group of faculty and staff at UMASS Boston to study concerns raised through the years about online education quality. This report summarizes the findings of the Taskforce created by these committees.

The task of the Faculty Council Subcommittee on E-Learning was to address the concerns about the quality of online courses that had been raised on this campus by studying how online learning was being addressed at other institutions and the current practices at UMB, seeing how the quality of the programs/courses might be assessed and what policies can be put in place to ensure the academic integrity of these programs/courses.

The committee met from July 2008 to April 2009, identifying key questions and concerns about online learning, both at UMass Boston and nationally, identifying UMass Boston practices, researching best practices elsewhere, consulting with relevant institutional entities such as CCDE, UMassOnline, and the Division of Information Technology Services, and writing this report with a series of recommendations for ensuring the quality of online education at UMass Boston.

The subcommittee’s report contains information about the context of online learning, both nationally, where there has been enormous growth in online courses and programs with an estimated 3.94 million online students in 2007, and at UMass where, through UMassOnline, there were over 40,000 students taking courses at the start of 2009, as well as the ways in which online learning is addressed by both NEASC and the UMass/Boston Strategic Plan. It defines key terms related to online learning, and goes on to address issues of quality for online teaching and learning, as derived from a review of the literature, to consider standards for the assessment of course quality, to review existing institutional practices and resources, and to make a set of recommendations related to online courses at UMass/Boston

Some of the central points of the report include the following:
• The key elements for student success in online courses are the same as those for face-to-face courses—a structure that moves students cognitively through course work that involves them in appropriate acts of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation with reference to the material being studied, and a learning environment that engages them with their instructors and other learners as they work actively to develop new understandings.
• The key elements of support for faculty include instruction in using tools and platforms through which the online course will be offered, but also help in conceptualizing the best ways to make use of these tools to engage students in the learning process.
• The best existing measure of course quality is that represented in the benchmarks of Quality Matters, a quality assessment consortium of over 300 institutions (CCCDE has an institutional membership but its courses have not been through this assessment process); these benchmarks address questions of overall design, clearly stated learning objectives, comprehensive instructional materials, effective learning activities, along with appropriate assessment strategies to measure student learning, access to appropriate institutional support services, and course navigation and use of technology that ensures access and engagement.
• Academic units are responsible for the development and teaching of online courses at UMass Boston and any new courses developed go through the standard review processes at all levels.
• Resources for supporting online teaching include required training in the use of the technologies and additional one-on-one support, educational workshops and conferences offered through IT.
• A concern about the authentication of students, to ensure the identity of students doing the work of the course, is being addressed, in part, by a new secure authentication system with one log-in for email, WISER, and Blackboard. UMass Online is keeping apprised of the development of new authentication technologies.
• Questions about e-learning, web-enhanced education, and/or distance education quality should not be different from questions and quality expectations of programs traditionally defined as campus-bounded.

The committee’s recommendations address the following areas:

• Education: All faculty and administrators need more education about online learning and best practices; faculty mentoring is needed; and academic support for online students needs to be provided.
• Quality Improvement and Education: a university-wide system for planning online curriculum should be put in place; funding is needed for program evaluation efforts; annual campus data should be made available; online teaching evaluations should reflect on-campus course standards; there should be systematic assessment of space for hybrid courses; there should be one-point entry for technology-related information and support; students need access to appropriate hardware and software, with full campus wireless capability; and Quality Matters adoption should be considered.
• Governance: Faculty should be able to influence decisions about learning management systems; the Provost’s Office should pay a larger role in assessment and support of the use of digital technologies; there should be greater transparency about institutional arrangements between CCDE and the Boston campus; UMassOnline should be involved in supporting a sustainability study of the e-learning enterprise in relationship to the institutional structures of faculty development, scholarly production, faculty governance, promotion; and the Academic Affairs, Academic Technology, and Graduate Studies Committees should be charged with developing activities to support and enhance the quality of e-learning offerings.
• Scholarship: sustainability requires a larger investment in the scholarship of e-learning, along with allocation of resources into the study of best practices, education, and professional development needs; the Provost should provide resources for research into the uses of virtual learning contexts; the Provost and administration need to develop appropriate recognition of e-learning activities with regard to tenure and promotion decisions on campus; and pedagogical emphasis in the adoption of technologies should be balanced with the continuous innovation appearing in the digital technology community.

My Video at:

Rigoberta Menchu at UMASS Boston from bacigalupe on Vimeo.

Some students have asked me why I have not accepted their requests to be my friends in facebook. Here is for a response, although one that I may reconsider in the future. Some faculty on campus, some of friends, and colleagues I respect, have different policies about this. However, mine are grounded on the notion that Facebook is a bit like being together at a bar or cocktail party in which folks may behave a bit informally. Very different from a place like LinkedIn where my expectation is that all exchanges will of the professional kind and therefore, any student or colleague would be welcome to be part of my network since I engage with them at a professional level.

Plainly, I simple do not encourage students to become my Facebook friends or accept being one if one of them hits the invite button. Several groups in facebook are dedicated to my students and hope to interact with them using this social networking tool. The groups are like being on campus, we interact in relation to what we see on campus, not what we may encounter at places where we expect peers rather than those we have evaluative responsibilities.

It is at the time in which my students become my colleagues that we should reconsider the idea of being friends in Facebook. At the moment, I plan to accept the requests of those who have graduated from the programs I teach or direct.

Having this sort of personal policy should help everyone to not ask what the boundaries are, I think placing this boundary at this time makes sense.

It will be very helpful to hear of how others make decisions about who to accept or not. Friends in Facebook, although at times may not be all the friends I invite for dinner at home, are potentially the folks I may see at informal gatherings, family, peers at professional conferences, colleagues who are journeying into similar pathways, etc.

One more thing, none of my photos tagging folks can be seen by friends or friends.